Reliever Antonio Alfonseca, wearing a Red Cross poncho, roamed the clubhouse two hours before gametime collecting money to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Alfonseca had an interesting way of collecting -- he walked up to people and said, "Money!" He then held out his tin can. Alfonseca collected from players, media members and clubhouse attendants.

 

:lol :thumbup

Dragon Slayer continues to be awesome

 

This gets added to the list with his ejection from the bullpen and all of his wacky celebrations, among other things

"He then held out his tin can."

 

 

That's the part that made me laugh... I can just see it. :lol

This guy is awesome. Most organizations are asking politley but Alfonseca is just going out and demanding it. :notworthy

Bull pen ejecttion was amazing

:lol

The guy is so frickin' awesome. He's been my hero ever since he got ejected from the bullpen, behind the left field wall.

When he got ejected it was definetly the funniest moment I've ever witnessed at a game in person.

 

He's a funny guy

Wow. Alfonseca is the man.

Pinky is Awesome :lol

 

:notworthy

So funny because it's so easy to picture it happening.

 

Good job Antonio!

Marlin pitches in to raise relief funds

 

A Florida Marlins pitcher decided to launch his own collection drive for Hurricane Katrina victims.

 

BY KEVIN BAXTER

 

kbaxter@herald.com

 

 

For days players have been sitting around the Florida Marlins' clubhouse, watching TV images of the horrors that have played out in the wake of Hurricane Katrina while talking about what they should do to help.

 

On Sunday morning, pitcher Antonio Alfonseca finally lost patience with the waiting and the talking and decided to take action, throwing an American Red Cross volunteer's vest over his uniform and setting up a table near the turnstiles at Dolphins Stadium to collect donations from fans coming to the team's game against the New York Mets.

 

''I got tired of sitting in the clubhouse,'' said Alfonseca, who first passed through the Marlins' locker room and the corridors underneath the grandstands pestering reporters, stadium workers and Marlins employees for donations before waiting 20 minutes for the main gates to open.

 

SPONTANEOUS ACT

 

''It was totally spontaneous,'' said Alex Morin of the Marlins' player relations department, who had planned to solicit donations himself before Alfonseca demanded his Red Cross vest and donation cans. ``He's just doing it out of the goodness of his own heart.''

 

Alfonseca primed his donation cans with $40 from his own wallet and said he planned to write a check for more than $1,000 to the Red Cross afterward. But even without that final donation, Alfonseca earned $1,000 for hurricane victims in less than an hour, posing for pictures and shaking hands with anyone behind the Gate H entrance who gave money.

 

The Marlins' Mermaids, front-office personnel, players' wives and other volunteers also collected money for the Red Cross from fans before all three games over the weekend, with Angela Smith, the club's manager for community affairs, estimating the total take at more than $27,000. Individual donations, Smith said, ranged from a check for $2,000 to change from a child's pocket.

 

And more may be coming. The team held a meeting last week to discuss fundraising ideas while center fielder Juan Pierre, who spends the offseason in Alexandria, La., is trying to organize an autograph-signing session after the team's upcoming road trip. Proceeds would go to relief efforts.

 

Pierre also backs a plan first floated by Baltimore Ravens' cornerback Deion Sanders in which every athlete in the four major professional sports leagues would donate $1,000 to hurricane relief.

 

That would raise more than $750,000 from Major League Baseball alone.

 

IMPACT HITTING

 

''I think it's just starting to hit people,'' Pierre said of the severity of the situation in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. ``You see it on TV every day. It's sad. You just think what if it happened here? People would be stranded on Interstate 95 or whatever.''

Nice work six finger